Meeting of the Presidents of the Visegrad Group

December 5, 2016
12:24 pm

On the initiative of the Speaker of the Sejm, a meeting of the presidents of the parliaments of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia was held.

- We met to discuss two issues. Firstly, to discuss what our opinion is on the future of the European Union and how to strengthen it to weaken various attempts at disintegration, while at the same time how to strengthen the roles of national parliaments of member states. The second issue was the discussion on concrete proposals of activities that would strengthen cooperation within the Visegrad Group countries - said Marshal Kuchciński. According to the Speaker, strengthening the parliaments would be possible by clarifying the rules and terminology, e.g. the principle of coherence or subsidiarity of functioning, resulting from the Treaty of Lisbon.

During the meeting, problems such as uncontrolled migration, ensuring security and the aging of society, mainly due to the loss of young people leaving for the West, as well as the loss of European identity were discussed. Marshal Kuchciński also presented a number of initiatives aimed at improving the public awareness of the Visegrad Group - This knowledge is very poor - Kuchciński said. - It is only a dozen or so percent. People do not know what we are working for and how much we have in common - from 700 years, that is from Visegrad to Visegrad - he added. During a working meeting proposals were made to improve information about the Visegrad Group, such as an international painting exhibition, an enlarged exhibition "From Visegrad to Visegrad", presenting the positive cooperation of the V4 countries over 700 years, scientific seminars "Restoring Forgotten History", literary competitions or an Internet information and promotional portal. The Marshal presented a proposal to include the fortified landscape, i.e. World War II fortifications and military cemeteries, under UNESCO protection. According to the Marshal, the financing of the projects would not have to involve high costs; the parliaments would support them by assuming patronage over them. - We want to make better use of the Visegrad Fund to support joint projects," said the Speaker. - We will ask our governments to push for the promotion of the Visegrad Group. So far less than 3 percent of the Fund has been used for promotion within the EU. This should be changed - said the Speaker of the Sejm.

Senate Speaker Stanisław Karczewski and the presidents of the Hungarian National Assembly Laszlo Kover, the Czech Senate Milan Stech, the Slovak National Council Andrej Danko and the deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic Jaroslava Pokorna Jermanova took part in the deliberations. All interlocutors agreed on the strengthening of cooperation and the need to increase the exchange of information between our countries.

President of the Slovak National Council Andrej Danko: The Visegrad Group is an example of a community that will refresh the European community.

Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly László Kövér: Our parliaments should have more influence on the workings of the European Union. We are the link between the government and our citizens.

President of the Czech Senate Milan Stech: The Visegrad Group should talk about how to prevent money from going away from investments to the West.